Judges need to act sooner to avoid mental-illness tragedies

When it comes to fixing problems, it’s a shame when resources are limited. But it’s a sin when resources aren’t used at all.

And that’s especially true in the face of a problem as severe and potentially tragic as untreated mental illness.

The horror of what happened outside an Arizona supermarket two weeks ago has forced us to confront again the realities of mental illness in our midst.

I know that creepy, smiling mug shot of suspect Jared Loughner is burned into your brain by now. Mine, too. It is the very picture of derangement.

And while we cheer the recovery of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, thinking about the death of little 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green is still almost too painful to bear.

If nothing else, these lingering images and emotions ought to have us asking if we’re doing all we can here to proactively care for those with mental illness.

In Dallas County, the answer is clearly no.

Mental-health resources here may be woefully limited. But a more immediate and solvable problem is a reluctance to use them at all — to force treatment upon those with unstable mental illness.

It’s nothing new. Psychiatrist James Baker heads Metrocare, the nonprofit agency charged with providing mental-health services in Dallas County. When he moved here from Houston 10 years ago, he noticed immediately that Dallas judges were far less inclined to order treatment than judges in Houston.

Since then judges have come and gone, but the philosophy of resisting involuntary commitments has not.

It’s time for that to change. Well intentioned as it may be, the practice is serving no one.

Surely there are people in Arizona now second-guessing themselves over the way Loughner’s obvious mental illness was handled. We shouldn’t wait for tragedy to force that kind of introspection here.

Dallas County judges have traditionally stuck to the “dangerousness” part of state law governing involuntary commitments.

Before being ordered into a mental-health facility, someone has to pose “a substantial risk of serious harm to himself or others.” And that has been strictly interpreted in Dallas County to mean that violence has already occurred or that specific threats were made against specific people.

But Baker said the law gives judges latitude to intervene much sooner, as they do in other parts of Texas.

Judges can use the “deterioration” part of state law, allowing commitment based on “evidence of severe emotional distress and deterioration in the person’s mental condition.”

Baker draws a comparison to diabetes:

“If you have insulin-dependent diabetes and you are not taking your insulin, does the doctor wait until you go into a diabetic coma before she insists you go to the hospital? Or does she make sure it never gets that bad?”

Right now, judicial philosophy here basically requires the coma.

Dallas County Probate Judge Michael Miller presides over the county’s mental-illness court. He’s the one making these decisions on who should or shouldn’t be ordered into treatment.

I would love to have discussed all this with him, but my phone calls weren’t returned. Perhaps we will have a chance to have that conversation later.

I just hope we can have it without waiting for a Jared Loughner to come along here.

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About Steve Blow

Career track: Worked as a reporter at the Fort Worth Press and the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. Joined The Dallas Morning News in 1978. Worked as a reporter until 1989, when I began writing the column.

Most unforgettable experience on the job: Probably flying in a fighter jet with the Blue Angels. Somewhere in the midst of that looping, zooming, twirling flight, I remember thinking, "I love my job."

Something people don't know about me: In college, I worked in a funeral home. (It was more lively than you might expect.)

If I had two spare hours, I would: See a movie, preferably one with lots of laughs and not a single gun battle.

The secret of a good news column is: Introduce the reader to a person worth knowing. Or put into words the reader's own thoughts. Or best of all, offer a view that differs from the reader's, but in a way that intrigues, not antagonizes.